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Sump noobie help

Xavier613

Xavier613

Alrighty... i want to add a sump to my 29gallon tank. I was thinking of using a 20long tank to do this with. nothing will be drilled as it is an already set up tank... So i will be using an overflow box. I was thinking of having the overflow drain into the right side of the sump, where my skimmer will be hanging on the side of. in between the right compartment and middle would be a bubble trap, the middle being a fuge, and the left side for a return pump.

I have seen a lot of diagrams of peoples sums with the fuge on the left, skimmer on the right and return in the middle. They have a pipe going from the skimmer section to the fuge and i dont know how to do that. Does it really matter if the water goes from skimmer to fuge to return> here is a rough diagram done in paint to show my concept.
sump.jpg



Any thoughts... recommendations, advice at all so i dont flood my room ;D
 
M

medachef

pump depends on flow rate of the over flow. Or if the return pump is too strong you can always "tee" it of so that it returns some of the water to the sump/fuge. That is also the way to put the return section in the middle. Except you have the overflow draining to one side and "tee" it off to the fuge section. Let the water do it's thing and it'll flow into the center chamber. To calibrate it just use a ball valve to control the flow. As for putting skimmer/Fuge/Return should be fine since i doubt the "seaclown" skimmer could effectively skim all the water coming from the overflow drain. You might want to put another bubble trap between the skimmer section and fuge to slow the flow of water a little. So that the coepods and what not have a chance to survive.

As for pumps see what your over flow will be rated. Then figure out how high the pump has to push up and then go to google... search Reef central headloss calculator and plug in your numbers. They have a bunch of pump on a drop down menu. I hear a lot of people are using the Mag Pumps (i have on not installed yet), but there may be a heat issue. but i hope this helps. if not let me know if i can explain anything better and I'll try.

Joe
 
Xavier613

Xavier613

Pretty much summed up all the things i was wondering about haha very nicely thanks.
Not that handy with plumbing so im probably going to find an overflow/pump that will run as close together in flow as possible.
Only thing i can think of right now is what should i use as piping to drain from the overflow to the sump? is PVC the best or can clear/black flexible tubing able to work just as well?
 
M

medachef

flex pvc. JUst put a union on the pipe so that you can easily detach it. As for flex tubing... get silicone cuz vinyl tubing will harden over time. But like i said google flex spa or flex pvc. they carry it at most lowes i believe. you'll want to minimize the elbows so that you don't restrict the flow of the water.

Well a cpr overflow that is rated at 300gph will match up to a mag 5 at about 3.5 -4 feet of head pressure. The mag 5 pushes a t 500ghp and after it climbs the pvc and the Utube to the return it is flowing at about 300 ghp. I think that is using 3/4" pvc too.
 
M

medachef

depending how much flow you wantin your main tank. If you don't want any powerheads in the tank then it may be too little. It all depends on how much flow you want. Also it depends on what you have in your tank. Softies would prolly do fine, but more flow would no't hurt. you could always put a koralia nano or two in there and let it do it's thing. Or upgrade the return pump and increase the size of the overflow. your call.
 
Xavier613

Xavier613

I think im fine on flow, just wanted to make suer the water got through the fuge at a decent rate... dunno whats optimum.

Now for the real question......


Anyone got a 300/600 gph overflow for sale? :D
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

Xavier613 said:
I think im fine on flow, just wanted to make suer the water got through the fuge at a decent rate... dunno whats optimum.

Now for the real question......


Anyone got a 300/600 gph overflow for sale? :D
Click to expand...

I have seen fugs with a lot of flow and fugs with slow flow. In this hobby - there really isn't anything "optimum" - just whatever works best for you. For those with big tanks, they did to "optimize" it against the size of the bulkheads/overflows.

Now we're talking about your 29G tank right? if so I wouldn't want to push too much water thru....

oh and I'd post that overflow question in the FS/FT section. good luck!
 
Xavier613

Xavier613

Dont really remember... its gonna be the one adesimone1 is selling me, along with their overflow. they said it was like 580gph so im probably going to go with the return split into the skimmer and the fuge section with the return in the middle to lower the flow.
 
W

waynes reef

i have the sump on my 175 like in your diagram, every once in a while ill have a problem with the skimmer pump pulling air from the bubbles created from water rushing in from the overflows but other than that it works great, my reefflow is rated at well over 2k/hr but it doesnt over do it because i have my chiller and uv teed off from the main plumbing, and the flow through the fuge has been a high flow but it seems like the macro in there and the pods arent effected and thriving, i only have a 18 watt light on my fuge too, so dont think you need to put allot of light in there.
 
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